Heat exchangers, which make it possible to transfer heat between a first medium and a second medium, are used in various fields of industry and are generally known.
Applications in vehicles are of particular significance, because the heat exchangers require a compact and inexpensive design for this. A plurality of heat exchangers may be used in vehicles, which have an internal combustion engine for driving the vehicle, for example, in one or more cooling circuits for cooling an engine block of the internal combustion engine, for cooling lubricating oil, for cooling charge air and for cooling recirculated exhaust gas.
To make it possible to better utilize the heat contained in the exhaust gas of the internal combustion engine, waste heat utilization units are known, which operate in the manner of a Rankine cycle, preferably a Rankine-Clausius cycle, so that a working medium is evaporated, expanded, condensed and compressed, and the expansion of the compressed, evaporated and superheated working medium is used to generate mechanical energy, for example, in order to drive a generator for power generation. The evaporation of the working medium is carried out here by means of an evaporator, which likewise corresponds to a heat exchanger. This heat exchanger or evaporator may be integrated, for example, in a suitable manner in an exhaust system of the internal combustion engine in order to transfer heat from the exhaust gas to the working medium to evaporate the working medium.